Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are used to deliver therapy, e.g., electrical stimulation therapy or drug delivery therapy, to patients to treat a variety of symptoms or conditions. Example conditions that may be treated by an IMD include chronic pain, tremor, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, incontinence, gastroparesis, sexual dysfunction, or cardiac arrhythmia. Typically, implantable medical devices deliver therapy to treat the above-identified symptoms or conditions by, for example, directing the therapy to a location proximate to or within the spinal cord, pelvic nerves, stomach, brain, or heart of a patient.
Generally, a clinician uses a programmer, e.g., a computing device capable of communicating with implantable medical devices via device telemetry, to program an implantable medical device for delivery of therapy to a patient. In some cases, such clinician programmers take the form of handheld and/or tablet-type computing devices. Handheld and/or tablet-type clinician programmers can allow for a more natural “bedside” interaction between clinicians and patients during the programming process. Handheld and/or tablet-type clinician programmers can also allow the programmer to be handed off to the patient for entry of symptom and/or therapy efficacy data.
During the course of therapy, a clinician may desire to adjust therapy parameters and/or other system parameters of the IMD. The clinician may use the clinician programmer to adjust therapy or monitor the operation of the IMD. In addition, the patient may use a patient programmer to adjust therapy according to the effectiveness of the therapy being delivered. The patient programmer may be similar to the clinician programmer, but lack some functionality that is not necessary or desired for the patient to use. In this manner, therapy may be flexible to the needs of the patient and information may be retrieved from the IMD in order to provide the most effective overall treatment of the patient's condition.
Some IMDs that deliver a therapy to a patient include a power source, such as a battery, within a housing of the IMD. Furthermore, some IMDs that do not deliver therapy, such as IMDs that include sensors for monitoring a patient, also include a power source within their housings. In some cases, such power sources are rechargeable. For example, some power sources within IMDs are rechargeable by receiving energy from a device external to the patient through transcutaneous energy transfer, an example of which is inductive energy transfer.